June 14, 2023 Letter in the Telegraph: The key to a more effective Online Safety Bill Author(s): Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy Credit: Magnus Mueller for Pexels For the Online Safety Bill to work, both regulators and independent researchers will need access to social media data. Today, Prof Gina Neff, Prof David King (Head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and former chief scientific adviser to the UK Government) and Professor Frank Kelly (Statistical Laboratory University of Cambridge) have written a letter in the Telegraph, calling for increased data access provisions in the Online Safety Bill. In the letter, they state that for the Online Safety Bill to work, both regulators and independent researchers will need access to social media data. The full letter is below: SIR – For the Online Safety Bill to work, both regulators and independent researchers will need access to social media data. We urge the Government to support amendments proposed by Lord Bethell, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Knight of Weymouth, which would accelerate the data access provision in the Bill. They would give researchers access to anonymised data that would enable academics to understand and quantify harms that children and others may face online, and help policymakers and watchdogs develop measures to better protect users. More than 25 organisations – including academics, charities and online safety campaigners – back the amendments. They will help regulators do their job more effectively, with less cost to the taxpayer. Data access can ensure that the UK remains one of the world’s most innovative places for research. Strengthening the provisions in the Bill would prevent a brain drain of academics leaving for the EU, where such provisions are in place. The UK has the opportunity to jump-start online and AI safety work by learning from the early experiences in other jurisdictions. Models exist elsewhere based on long negotiations between policymakers, researchers and platform companies. We must ensure researchers, along with journalists, policymakers and civil society, can effectively access data they need to solve the most pressing issues facing our societies today. Professor Gina Neff Executive director, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy University of Cambridge Professor David King Head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and former chief scientific adviser to the UK Government Professor Frank Kelly Professor of the mathematics of systems, Statistical Laboratory University of Cambridge